There's a long thread on how to use Ghost 2003 with Windows 7. I have used it from a floppy, not the installed version, successfully since 2010. I don't have the time right now to find it, you'll have to do a search.

Old chinese proverb:If I hear - I forget, If I see - I remember, If I do - I understand

Hey--I remember you! It's been awhile....but, always glad to welcome a member back to talk about Ghost, imaging, computing, etc..

Quote:

God is good! Am doing much better!

Hmmm...that seems to be a *loaded* statement--dare I ask? Or, just leave it as is?

Quote:

would like to know the earliest version of Ghost that can image both to and from for Win7 installed in only one partition ??

It always makes me smile how a poster on a forum can condense a *simple* question down to such a short one line statement--but, the response could produce *reams* of replies and other questions!

So here the questions come!

*the earliest version of Ghost* You mention Ghost 2003--does your question want to know if Ghost 2002, or Ghost 2001 can be used with Win7? Or, are we going the other direction--Ghost 14, or Ghost 15?

Quote:

that can image both to and from for Win7

I forget, were (are) you using Ghost 2003 from bootable media that you boot to DOS, and perform your imaging from there? Or, are you installing the Windows Ghost 2003 interface, and doing your imaging by setting up the procedure within Windows, and allowing Ghost to close down Windows, perform the imaging, and then re-boot to Windows?

Quote:

for Win7 installed in only one partition

So, have you taken the *special* steps to prevent Win7 from doing its default installation that creates the special boot partition (the SRP) in addition to the OS partition.

And, if you wish to use Ghost 2003 without using special settings, one needs to *generalize* the boot files so the boot process does not look for a specific HDD ID number, but instead just looks for the boot *device*. Ghost 2003 will erase the HDD ID number by default, and that will prevent Win7 from booting without doing a *boot repair* to fix that problem (by using the Win7 installation CD to do the repair). Or, you can use special Ghost switches to prevent Ghost 2003 from erasing the HDD ID number when restoring an image.

Ghost + Windows 7 Questions! (Dan Goodell's explains why SRP exists!) Quoting: "The rub is that BitLocker is only available in the Ultimate and Enterprise versions of Windows 7. So for 99% of us, BitLocker isn't an option--and thus isn't a legitimate excuse to saddle us with a System Reserved partition.")

Ghost + Windows 7 Questions! (Brian explains how to remove SRP--apparently have to use Vista or Part PE, Bing, and Win7 installation CD do make boot repairs!)

is there something else I need to do to the files and then reburn it to a CD??? if so, what??

Well, are you starting Ghost manually from the A:\ prompt after booting to DOS? Do you simply type *ghost.exe* to start Ghost? If *Yes* and *Yes*, then you just add a Ghost *switch* to that command line that you are typing to start Ghost. So type:

Code:

ghost.exe /fdsp

or

ghost.exe -fdsp

There's a space after *ghost.exe*, and you can use either */* or *-* to indicate to the Ghost command line that what follows is a *switch*.

The *-fdsp*--I don't know for sure what the *f* stands for, but the *dsp* stands for *disk signature preserve*. Probably do not have to use that switch when creating the image file, but definitely need it when doing a restore of an image file (if using Ghost 2003 with Win7 that requires use of the -fdsp switch, I would probably use it every time I start Ghost just to be sure)--Ghost 2003's default behavior is to erase the disk signature when restoring a *whole disk* image to a HDD (the disk signature is not erased if you are just restoring a partition to the disk). The Ghost people added that as a safety measure so folks could not clone a system disk (disk to disk, or image to disk) on a system where both HDDs would still be connected upon next re-boot to Windows. Because Windows now *remembers* drive letter assignments in the registry which persists from one boot to the next, if two HDDs are on the system that have *identical* disk signatures--basically all hell breaks loose, and it's any body's guess what drive letters are assigned to what HDD--actually probably depends on which drive is seen as the first physical HDD. But the results are not pretty. Most people can not recover unless they have a current image file so they can restore that to the main HDD, and start over.

Quote:

how I'd like to modify the current CD...copy files to hdd... modify for "device" instead of "hdd id number"... burn with Nero back to new CD...

So, have you taken the *special* steps to prevent Win7 from doing its default installation that creates the special boot partition (the SRP) in addition to the OS partition.

And, if you wish to use Ghost 2003 without using special settings (switches), one needs to *generalize* the boot files so the boot process does not look for a specific HDD ID number, but instead just looks for the boot *device*.

Are we talking about an existing Win7 installation? Does it have the special boot partition, the SRP (System Reserve Partition)?

The files that need to be modified are the Win7 boot files--not any of the Ghost 2003 files. Once you *generalize* the Win7 boot files, then you would no longer have to worry about using the *-fdsp* switch.

If the SRP exists, then the whole system is dependent on the SRP for booting properly--so Ghost imaging requires that both the SRP and the OS partition be backed up in case of HDD failure. And both have to be restored for successful booting.

In my previous post, there are references as to how to install Win7 so as to avoid having an SRP created. Or, you can remove the SRP and modify the Win7 installation so all the boot files are placed in the Win7 OS partition. This make creating and restoring Ghost 2003 image files easier--you no longer have to worry about backing up and restoring both the SRP and the OS partitions. It's now like using Ghost 2003 on a WinXP system!

My W7Pro is already installed on ONE partition - on an extra hdd for my toshiba satellite laptop - and the drivers have been updated.(done before starting this thread)

My CD starts the ghost program automatically... all I have to do is click yes/no on the first screen... and then I'm in...

So, where are the W7Pro boot files... and then... how do I "generalize" it / them??? (step by step, please)

BTW, thanks SO MUCH for giving me all the reading assignments... increases my knowledge base so I can use the proper words in proper sequences... and understand the words I read... and don't come across as a total dummy and/or stupid

My W7Pro is already installed on ONE partition - on an extra hdd for my toshiba satellite laptop - and the drivers have been updated.(done before starting this thread)

So, you have to swap out HDDs in order to boot to Win7 on your laptop?

Where do you save Ghost image files when doing a Ghost image creation?

So, I'm assuming your *extra hdd* was already partitioned before you installed Win7, and you chose to install it in that existing partition--is that accurate?

Just to confirm--have you gone to *Disk Management* for the Win7 system, and there is only one partition (drive) listed in Disk Management, and/or if you have booted to DOS and started Ghost, the Win7 HDD shows only one partition in the Ghost interface if you select to create an image using partition to image?

I'm trying to pin that information down *for sure*--because some of the instructions for *generalizing* the Win7 boot file depends on the answers.

I have several projects that I have to work on for the next couple days--so I may be slow to post the steps you need to do, but they are coming.......

So, you have to swap out HDDs in order to boot to Win7 on your laptop?

Yes, I have 4 - 2.5" hdds... one for the internet with xp pro; one for doing audio and video with xp pro; one for w7pro; last one for my ghost images from the first three.Quote:

Where do you save Ghost image files when doing a Ghost image creation?

see answer #1... last line. I use a little sata usb adapter to hook it up to my laptop... have no problems with imaging to or from with it... so far Quote:

So, I'm assuming your *extra hdd* was already partitioned before you installed Win7, and you chose to install it in that existing partition--is that accurate?

yes, I partitioned the entire drive into two partitions... one primary and one extended/logical... so the entire drive was partitioned and formatted before installing w7pro into the primary active partition.Quote:

Just to confirm--have you gone to *Disk Management* for the Win7 system, and there is only one partition (drive) listed in Disk Management, and/or if you have booted to DOS and started Ghost, the Win7 HDD shows only one partition in the Ghost interface if you select to create an image using partition to image?

didn't need to... after installing w7pro, I just booted into the system... w7pro is on the primary drive, and the extended/logical is empty.Quote:

I'm trying to pin that information down *for sure*--because some of the instructions for *generalizing* the Win7 boot file depends on the answers.

that's OK... better safe than sorry...

Quote:

I have several projects that I have to work on for the next couple days--so I may be slow to post the steps you need to do, but they are coming.......

It's been a week since installing... patience is a virtue... I'm pretty sure I can wait for your info

---------------------------------------------------BTW.... Since burning the ghost floppy files onto CD, I have been able to image both to and from with many different configurations... partitions being larger than, smaller than, on a logical drive, on a 2.5 to 3.5 and 3.5 to 2.5, SSD to SATA and back, SATA to IDE and back. It doesn't seem to matter what I try, it takes it and works (except for w7pro)! All the target drives are in the machine and the sources are connected by USB cable.

Maybe I'm just lucky...

Right from the start I have always partitioned my drives before installing the OSs... except for W7... the first time I let it do it's own thing... didn't like what I saw - found out it could be installed into one partition and from then on, have put it into one.

I probably should put all my OSs onto one drive... but haven't found a boot program - or manually - that would boot them the way I want them booted... which is -- whichever OS I choose would be the ONLY OS showing when it's booted... none of the other OSs would show being on the rest of the drive. I would have one logical drive to put all the docs and stuff taken from the OS drives (like the bookmarks etc for Firefox) and when each OS is booted only that primary partition and the logical would show up.

And want to use images to put the 3 OSs on the drive...

I'd like to have two of XPpro and one of w7pro... and one logical for "stuff" from all 3 OSs...that way, I could just hook up a hdd by USB for all the docs, video, audio, etc and wouldn't need to swap out drives.

I probably should put all my OSs onto one drive... but haven't found a boot program that would boot them the way I want them booted... which is -- whichever OS I choose would be the ONLY OS showing when it's booted... none of the other OSs would show being on the rest of the drive. I would have one logical drive to put all the docs and stuff taken from the OS drives (like the bookmarks etc for Firefox) and when each OS is booted only that primary partition and the logical would show up.

That's the beauty of BIBM. You don't need to modify your OS partitions. You could simply copy each OS, in turn, to the new larger drive. Each would be an independent OS. You wouldn't have to edit boot.ini for WinXP and you wouldn't have to modify the boot files in Win7.

The BIBM partition is a small 8 MB FAT type partition that can be anywhere on the drive.

I hate to say this but BIBM contains Image for DOS which leaves Ghost 2003 for dead.